5 Ways to Refresh Your Home in Less than 5 Minutes

A little secret about myself: I wanted to be an interior designer for the longest time. When I was younger, once I was old enough to be left home alone, any time my family would go grocery shopping or something, they would come home to a completely different house. Everything was rearranged! And they were always happy with it.

Is it just me, or do you ever get bored in your house? Not that I dislike the things in our home, I just need a change.

You can always fall back on the good ol’ rearranging the furniture, but I’m really an 80 year old woman trapped in a 20-something’s body, so it’s hard for me to do a lot of that anymore. Don’t judge… So when I’m due for a home spruce-up, I stick to quick and easy. Things that a guest in your home would probably never notice, but for the people who are there every day, it makes an impact.

Here are some of my tips and things I do around my house to keep it fresh.

Make the bed
This is actually what sparked the idea for this post, as I was doing it today. Our home is a three bedroom: master, guest room, and office (which also has a bed in it), but I exclude the master when doing this. As for the other two beds, I have a handful of throw pillows in different shapes, sizes, and colors, but the colors match in both in the guest room and office. So periodically I will mix it up. Sometimes this means swapping some of the pillows between rooms, and other times I’ll simply change the way they’re displayed.

Rearrange décor
Remember, I like quick and easy, so I pick the things that are quick and easy to move. If it requires patching holes in the wall, it stays. But things like photos on tables, lamps, candlesticks, and floral arrangements are all up for grabs. Even if you just have two layouts that you swap between every six months or so, once you come back to it with a fresh set of eyes, it looks great!

Clean the whites
This is my single most hated chore. My poor back just can’t take it! But when I finally bite the bullet and do it, I’m always so happy I did. Every six months to a year or so, I pull up a pillow and slide across the floor scrubbing baseboards. If you have not yet discovered the wonders of the Magic Eraser, this is the time to do so!
While I’m at it, I also scrub doors, door trims, and cabinet doors. If you’ve never done this, you’ll be shocked at how much dust the paneling in doors catch. And don’t even get me started on kitchen cabinet door gunk!

Put a linen on it!
In the guest bathroom, there are towels hanging on the rack that are really just for show. I’m sure some people probably wipe their hands on them instead of the hand towel, but when people stay, I always instruct them to get a clean towel out of the closet for bathing. Regardless, every few months, I’ll swap out which towels are hanging. I don’t get super fancy with them; I’m not talking monogrammed towels with tassels by any means.
Same goes for the hand towels we use in the kitchen. We don’t have a ton of these to switch between, what we have just goes through the normal rotation, but I feel like dishtowels should be replaced every few months anyway. At least for us. I don’t know how, but we are seriously brutal on our dishrags! They get put through a lot, and they get washed a lot. After 3ish months, they’re looking pretty dingy.

Go seasonal
This can get pricey, but if you accumulate as you go, it’s not bad. There’s a few ways I do this. First is with my front door décor; I will swap out the wreath every couple months. Sometimes I’ll be stereotypical, like with a red, white and blue wreath around the 4th of July and Memorial day, but other times I’ll just go with a style. Maybe a colorful mesh wreath in the summer, burlap wreath in the fall, etc.
I’ll also mix it up with my flower arrangements. I’ve collected a handful that I’ll swap between. My go-to is just classic white, but I’ve got tulips and things that I usually put out in spring – I’m just behind!

So tell me, do you have any tricks to keep you from falling in a rut? Things you do around the house to keep things interesting for the people who have to look at it every day. I’d love to hear your tips and add them to my arsenal! And I hope you enjoyed the little sneak peak into my home!